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Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are a profesional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado that playes in the National Basketball Association. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association (ABA) but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. It changed its name again to the Nuggets in anticipation of an ABA-NBA merger in 1974, and played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the New York Nets. The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA-NBA merger and has had some periods of success, making the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons in the 1980s and doing the same for the previous nine seasons. However, it has not made an appearance in a championship round since its last year in the ABA. The Nuggets play their home games at the Pepsi Center, which they share with the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL. 2011–Present On February 22, 2011, after months of speculation that he wanted to leave the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony was traded along with Chauncey Billups, Anthony Carter, Shelden Williams and Renaldo Balkman to the New York Knicks in a multi-player deal also involving the Minnesota Timberwolves in which the Nuggets received Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and Kosta Koufos. On the day when the trade was done, the Nuggets were left with 9 players to play against the Memphis Grizzlies. The Nuggets won 120–107, where they led by as many as 27 points. In the closing minutes of the game, the arena resounded with chants of "Who needs Melo?" George Karl said after the game, "Our guys, when their backs are confronted with a difficult situation, they usually play at a high level. We always react to tough situations in a very positive way." Some people said after the trade the Nuggets would become the "Cleveland Cavaliers" of the West, that is, would falter in the standings and lose their playoff hopes due to the loss of their franchise player, Carmelo. However, the trade only seemed to make them better. Post-trade, the Nuggets averaged 24.1 assists, showing their newfound teamwork. The defense of the Nuggets also improved, from allowing 105.2 ppg before the trade to of 97.1 ppg for the remainder of the season. 37 Despite the franchise changing trade which saw eighteen different starting lineups through the whole season, Denver finished with 50 wins (fourth consecutive 50 win seasons for the first time in Nuggets history), clinching the 5th seed of the Western Conference. They met the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs and lost four games to one. The first full season of the post-Melo Nuggets saw the steady rise of Danilo Gallinari, who averaged 17 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists through the first 25 games of the season, which resulted to the Nuggets' best start through the first 20 games. But Gallinari was robbed off his best season by injuries to his ankle, thumb, and wrist. On March 15, 2012, the Nuggets decided to make their team younger by trading Nenê, who had played the previous 9 seasons for Denver, to the Washington Wizards for JaVale McGee.38 Prior to playing with the Nuggets, McGee has had the reputation as a dumb NBA player, known for making awful mistakes that have molded his losing years playing for the Washington Wizards. McGee would have a rebirth in Denver though, as he changed from a knucklehead to a key player for the Nuggets. In his first game as a Nugget, he made a putback dunk off an Arron Afflalo miss which proved to be the game-winning basket in Denver's 116-115 victory over the Detroit Pistons. In two of the Nuggets final games of their season, McGee finally earned national attention when he had a 16-point,15-rebound effort, and a 21-point, 14-rebound effort in Denver's playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. These performances helped the Nuggets come back from a 2-0 and a 3-1 series deficit, but the Nuggets would eventually fall in game seven, 87-96. On August 10, 2012, Denver was involved in a four-team trade where they received All-Star Andre Iguodala and sent Arron Afflalo and Al Harrington to the Orlando Magic. This same trade also sent Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers. After the trade, Iguodala tweeted "I'm excited to be joining the Denver Nuggets and I know my best basketball is ahead of me!"Despite losing their first three games, the 2012-2013 Nuggets would finish with a franchise best 57-25 record, and a 38-3 record in the Pepsi Center (the Washington Wizards, Miami Heat, and Minnesota Timberwolves were the only 3 visitors to defeat Denver on their home during the regular season).Denver also clinched the 3rd seed in the Western Conference, with a first round matchup with the Golden State Warriors. The Nuggets won Game 1 97-95 on their home court on a last second Andre Miller game winner, but the Warriors would win the next three games, putting the Nuggets on the brink of elimination. Denver won Game 5 at home to keep their season alive, but the Warriors eliminated the Nuggets in Game 6, winning 88-92 in Oakland. It was Denver's ninth first round loss in the previous 10 seasons. This resulted in the firing of Karl, who had won the NBA Coach of the Year Award for that season and led Denver to the playoffs in all 9 seasons there, but only escaped the first round once. Along with Karl leaving, Denver saw a major shake up in the front office with Executive of the Year Masai Ujiri accepting the General Manager position at the Toronto Raptors and vice-president Pete D'Alessandro, who was expected to replace Ujiri, being named General Manager of the Sacramento Kings] On June 21, 2013, Tim Connelly was announced as the new General Manager and on June 25, Denver hired Brian Shaw, who had previously worked under Frank Vogel and Phil Jackson, as the Denver Nuggerts Roster Category:Western Conference